Europe has taken a decisive step toward technological leadership with the signing of the procurement contract for Alice Recoque, the continent’s next exascale supercomputer.
The agreement, officially concluded between the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) and the selected vendor, Eviden, marks the start of a transformative project that will redefine Europe’s supercomputing capabilities.
Anders Jensen, EuroHPC JU Executive Director, emphasised the significance of the technology: “As Europe has officially entered the exascale era, I am delighted to soon welcome Alice Recoque to our EuroHPC fleet.
“This groundbreaking exascale supercomputer, powered by pioneering European technologies, will elevate scientific discovery, industrial innovation, and technological sovereignty to the next level, while ensuring exceptional energy efficiency. ”
A supercomputer named for a pioneer
Honouring the legacy of French computer science trailblazer Alice Recoque, the new machine will become one of the most powerful supercomputers ever built in Europe.
When deployed, it will be capable of performing more than one billion-billion calculations per second – a feat so immense that a human with a calculator would need billions of years to match it.
More than a symbolic name, the Alice Recoque project reflects Europe’s commitment to scientific excellence, innovation, and technological sovereignty.
A unified platform for simulation, AI, and quantum innovation
Designed to tackle Europe’s most urgent scientific, societal, and industrial challenges, Alice Recoque will unite large-scale simulation, advanced AI processing, data analytics, and early-stage hybrid quantum technologies.
By bringing these tools together in one energy-efficient environment, the system will enable researchers to handle complex datasets with unprecedented speed and precision.
Its flexible architecture will empower users to explore breakthroughs across fields such as climate modelling, medicine, engineering, and materials science – areas where computational scale is often the gateway to discovery.
Powering Europe’s AI factories and tech ambitions
Beyond academia, Alice Recoque will serve as a powerful backbone for Europe’s emerging network of AI Factories.
Startups and SMEs across the continent will gain access to ultra-high-performance computing resources, helping them compete with global rivals and strengthening Europe’s digital competitiveness.
This role positions Alice Recoque not just as a scientific asset, but as a strategic industrial engine for Europe’s future tech economy.
Cutting-edge European technology at its core
The exascale computer will be built by Eviden using an innovative mix of high-performance European technologies.
At its heart will be the Eviden Sequana XH3500 platform, featuring a unified compute partition powered by AMD Venice 256-core processors paired with next-generation AMD MI430x GPUs operating in a coherent-memory configuration.
A second compute partition – the scalar partition – will rely on SiPearl RHEA2 ARM processors, designed under the European Processor Initiative (EPI).
All compute elements will connect through a high-speed Bull BXI v3 interconnect, offering CPU and GPU link speeds of 400 Gb/s and 800 Gb/s, respectively, while sharing access to a data-centric storage system.
To maintain performance sustainably, the supercomputer will use warm-water direct-liquid cooling for unified racks and chilled-door technology for scalar racks.
System operations will rely on the CEA Ocean framework, enhanced by Eviden tools and widely used open-source components including SLURM, Kubernetes, LUSTRE, Grafana, and Prometheus.
Hosting, funding, and deployment timeline
The Alice Recoque system will be installed at CEA’s TGCC supercomputing centre in Bruyères-le-Châtel, France.
It will be owned by EuroHPC JU and operated by the Jules Verne consortium, a partnership led by France (through GENCI and CEA) with participation from the Netherlands (SURF) and Greece (GRNet).
The €354.8m project will be co-funded equally by EuroHPC JU via the Digital Europe Programme and the participating countries.
Once operational, Alice Recoque will be made available to researchers, industry, and public-sector users across Europe, with resource allocation shared proportionally between the EuroHPC JU and the Jules Verne consortium.
What comes next
Installation of Alice Recoque is scheduled to begin in 2026, marking the start of a new era for European supercomputing.
With its blend of massive processing power, cutting-edge European technology, and strategic vision, Alice Recoque is poised to become a central pillar of Europe’s scientific and industrial future.
